My Wedding at Halia Restaurant, Raffles Hotel, (Blessed-i Photography & Digio Review)

I've been missing in action. Taking really long to reply all of you who have written to me because I was so caught up the last 2 months of so with my life. Yes, a momentous period in my life, that's why. It was my transition to a Mrs.

Our Humorous Solemnizer, My Alex Tan Boon Yan

Well well, I didn't turn out to be the bride-zilla that some thought I'd be. Tsk! In fact, I enjoyed the whole wedding planning down to the day itself. It was beautiful holding our wedding at Halia Restaurant, Raffles Hotel. I've always wanted a simple wedding with elegance. No change of dress, just 1 Made To Measure Gown in, no cheesy music march-in and a cozy affair with closed ones. And I've never thought I'll freak out or turn into a demanding monster on my wedding day. Like I told my hubby, I am "Little Mis-understood". : :D 

I didn't, however, expect to enjoy myself this much. It as a beautiful day to me. I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

With My Parents

One Of My Fav Pics

My Cute Tea Dress From Digio Bridal

Private Moments With My Bridesmaids Kept Me Sane

Sunny Wedding Morning

Our Display On The Ozone Table in Halia Restaurant, Raffles Hotel

Halia Restaurant Elegant Display With Our Personal Touches

My Superb Make-Up Artist Who Gave Me A Glam Smokey Eye Look That I Love, Love, Love!

Wedding March-In With My 2 Little Loves

Giving Our Thank You Speech

Hubby Singing To Me

I have been asked several times how my life has changed after getting married. Well, day to day, it hasn't. The transition when we first stayed together was greater than formalizing our marriage. Still, I love being married. It brings along a settled feeling and a sense of commitment that I've never felt in my previous relationships. One that publicly announces and signifies you're in this for the long haul and a reminder of the decision we've made.

Yet another FAQ was how did my wedding day go and how best to keep calm. This special day was made more heartwarming by the love I felt from my family and friends, in whatever way it was expressed. There may be some who will become the monster-zilla instead so it's important to remind yourself that THIS IS your day and allow no one to take your joy away from you. 

Completed Artwork From The Combined Effort of Our Guest On Our Wall

**A special thanks also to the people below who are passionate & excellent in their works!**

-Blessed-i Photography Yeow Ming, who captured so many beautiful Actual Day "in the moment" pictures. He was jovial and was always non-intrusively snapping away. 

-Chris, my wonderful make up artist who gave me so many gorgeous hairdo for my hard to style short hair & non-traditional make up on my actual wedding night. I absolutely love my smokey eyes and drama look that night. 

-Vanness from Digio Bridal who snapped so many beautiful pre-wedding pictures of us. He is so experienced and made the whole shooting process fast and fun!

Here's a few of my pre-wedding photo shoot pictures:

DHC Collagen 7000mg Drink Review, Results

And so my vain pot urges took over 2 weeks before my wedding photo shoot. I grabbed 3 packs for DHC Collagen 7000mg drinks from Watson's at a total of less than 100SGD and beamed away at my good buy.

I tested 1 bottle for allergy reaction before bedtime and it seeemed alright. I then  put them aside to drink 2 weeks before my wedding photo shoot. The only discomfort I felt was the thirst the morning after drinking it. Even this didn't deter me as I was so looking forward to filling up my skin with more collagen. :P

DHC Collagen Drink tastes better chilled than in room temperature. It is much less sour when chilled. Also, when compared to Fancl Tense Up, it is sweeter and has a very lovely fragrance when the bottle cap is removed.

4 days into drinking this collagen drink, I got a tiny bump on my right cheek and I hardly ever get pimples or bumps on my cheeks. I thought it was a pimple and went to my facial lady but was told that it is the precursor of pimple. Hhhhm... 

Anyway, my thirst went on and I never drank so much water in half a week before. It's like a constantly-on-the-verge-of-having-sore-throat feeling.

See, So Sad...

Yet at the same time, I felt that my skin was smoother when I put on make up. It seemed like it, at least.

And into my 5th day, I noticed more bumps in the mirror under the sunlight! Argh!!! I am going to stop taking DHC Collagen Drink.

It's not working for me. I'm letting my mum try it instead, maybe it'll add some glow for her. Hehe...

Well, I'm glad I tried it before my photo shoot and not before my actual day wedding. Oh well, this product doesn't work for me. And my skin isn't usually that kind that reacts to new products in a negative way. This one just works in a bad way. Boo...

Fancl Tense Up works much better. You can read about my previous post here. Meiji powder and Fancl pills didn't have much effect on me but at least there was no adverse reaction.

So, my verdict is... I will not buy it ever again. I'll continue my hunt to look for ways to shine, only after my photo shoot. Jut to be safe. ;)

Redmart.com Review, Online Grocery, Online Supermarket Shopping in Singapore

The first thing I did this morning after getting my coffee is to shop away! Online, that is. Redmart.com supermarket shopping for pasta coking this weekend. Even before I got my own place, I've always relish the thought of online grocery shopping. So, within the first 2 weeks of getting my keys, I've already given Redmart.com a try.

Secure Packaging

What a treat for my miserly arm muscles!

It used to be free delivery for purchases of $79 and above but there's a current promotion that delivers for free with every $49 and above spent. Valid until 31 August 2013 only. 

Of course, I jumped at the chance and ordered 2 more rounds. Haha..

What's more, enter the promotional code of likeredmart and get to enjoy additional 10% of your purchase and this 10% applies to even items already on sale!

You'll get to select your preferred delivery dates and the next day slot is usually available.

Payment is also a breeze with online credit card option,  credit card upon delivery or through Paypal and you're done! Easy peasey and hassle free.

The past 3 deliveries were pleasant and on time. Once, the deliveryman was running 10 mins late and he called me on my mobile hone to inform me beforehand. This is what I call good service! Redmart's pricing is like other supermarkets. Some thing are more expensive, and some are cheaper, especially those on sale.

I'm so glad that grocery shopping is made so much easier these days with online shopping. I'll no longer need to lug heavy household items, especially detergent, rice, oil and such. I'm loving it and getting hooked!

Mid Century Modern, Vintage, Wood Furniture, Designer Chair in Singapore Review

So, I have been furniture hunting. Fiance and I started out agreeing that we do not want the modern and contemporary kind of look that feels cold to us. We both love wood, he is more of a retro and vintage guy who loves the curves of things. "Sexy", he would call it. :P As for me, I am more of a traditional person who love warm furniture like wood and fabric. It was a breeze agreeing on what would go into our new house. We both dislike metal and glass so material was readily agreed upon.

Since we have been spending so much time going around searching for our ideal pieces, I thought I'll share where to get some of the mid century, vintage and wood pieces that we've came across.

Furniture pieces that caught our eyes were mainly mid century pieces like the following:

Grant Featherston Contour Lounge Chair

The first piece of furniture that caught my eye even before we got the keys to our place. The sky blue colour is just so cute!

Jeremy Pyles Glass Lights

Ok, so these lights aren't exactly mid century pieces but they do give off the vibe, yah?

So, you get the idea on the pieces that move our hearts. Here's a list of the places we went to and a brief review for each one.

.WOODY WOODY, ALL THINGS WOODY & LOVELY.

1. Journey East

315 Outram Road, #03-02 Tan Boon Liat Building S(169074), 

Tel: 6473 1693

Journey East at Tan Boon Liat Building has a collection of refurbished vintage pieces and also new teak furniture which are more rugged looking. The pricing is reasonable and the pieces are cute. They remind me of my grandparents' homes. An era long bygone, our childhood past.

We got this 1950's teak dining table from Central Java. The legs show Scandinavian influences, probably by the Dutch. 

Pieces here seem to be more from Asia due to the material, teak. I'm not sure whether they have pieces from Europe. Anyway, when there, you can help yourself to the coffee and drink by the counter and speak with the friendly people from Journey East to find out more.

2. Mountain Teak

315 Outram Road, #07-02 Tan Boon Liat Building S(169074), 

Tel: 6244 7176

In the same building, there's another teak shop called Mountain Teak on the 7th floor. As the name suggests, it's mainly teak pieces in there. New pieces, not pre-owned ones. Pricing is also reasonable and there's many simple and classic pieces available.

This is one cool bookshelf that we're drooling at.

3. Originals

896 Dunearn Road, #02-03 Sime Darby Centre S(598472), 

Tel: 6471 9918

We also traveled all the way to the West to take a look at Originals. The wood furniture here has a more modern feel. Many are also in the distressed wood style. Sturdy and good quality pieces but pricing is on the high side for us.

4. Like That One

2, Bukit Batok Street 24, #01-02 Skytech S(659480), 

Tel: 6560 9168

Even further westward was a charming shop called Like That One. You won't miss it as you drive in with its brightly lit signage. A great place to hunt for vintage accessories and small pieces to pull the look together. In addition to wood pieces, they have many interesting mid century industrial furniture too. Pricing may be a tad higher than what we were prepared to fork out but they do have a few snazzy pieces that may tempt you. All pieces are refurbished and pre-loved. By the way, they also serve great coffee. 

It was here that we fell in love with an extravagant piece. Our 1960's Maple Wood Mobile Bar retrieved from the UK. It is now serving a dual function as our console table and mobile bar to make our money's worth. Hehe...

Isn't it a cute, gorgeous piece? It's real cool with secret compartments that made us swooned. The wood grain is oh so pretty. It's my favourite piece at home now!

5. Franc Franc

1 Habourfront Walk, #02-41/42, VivoCity S(098585)

Tel: 6376 8077

And there's the store that many knows about in VivoCity, Franc Franc. It is a Japanese store and I only found out when I decided to buy 2 pieces of Ashwood furniture there. Most pieces are interesting, cute and contemporary. With a burst of colours there, you can easily pick  out something that'll add a splash of brightness to your home. Service is good and pricing is reasonable when they have sale. :P

Most pieces are made of MDF but there are some others that are a few made of solid wood. 

We wanted the TV console in lighter wood and Franc Franc ordered it al the way from Japan for us. Check this place out if you're looking for fun pieces with clean lines.

6. Restore Living

124 Tanjong Pagar Road S(088533)

Tel: 6222 3105

For small vintage pieces like chairs, stools and coffee table pieces, you may want to check out Restore Living. I find this store more of a place to go if you want to get that 1 interesting piece of chair. They do a lot of refurbishing of old furniture. And the items available here have a pretty local feel to them. It is also a cafe by the way.

7. Commune/Koda

9 Raffles Boulevard #02-51/52 Millenia Walk S(039596)

Tel: 6338 3823

Another great place with contemporary wood pieces is Commune at Millenia Walk. Delivery is prompt and service is good. the delivery guys even have feedback forms for customers to fill in! I find the furniture there easy to match and very likable. Too bad the extendable dining table we wanted in walnut colour was made of veneer. Hence, we settled for the sofa only. 

Of course, there are many more shops that we didn't have the time to visit even though we shortlisted them. Some just weren't suitable.

8. Others & many more...

Mid Century/Vintage

• Room of Woods - Furniture looks good but didn't get a chance to go.
• Lorgan's - Heard that it is pricey so didn't make our way to the other side of the island for it. All new items I heard.
• Second Charm - Looks good too and they carry vintage furniture.
• Hock Siong & Co. - I want to check it out one of these days still. Carries vintage furniture too.

Contemporary Wood

• Ethniccraft - Very helpful and responsive people but somehow didn't get a chance to visit them due to schedule. Need to make appointment before going over.
• We Love Air - Some pieces are nice but out of budget too.
• Grafaunkt - Out of budget and didn't really find anything that caught our eyes.
• Pomelo Home - Beautifully designed contemporary pieces but really way out of our budget.
• Scanteak - Safe, expected pieces, good for basics. They have a range where they worked with a Japanese designer and that's quite cute. 
• Picket & Rail - There's wood pieces and designer inspired pieces too.
• Air Division - Looks nice on website but didn't manage to find time to make it there too.
• Barossa Furnishing - Didn't manage to travel to Woodlands for a visit for teak dining table. Read that the furniture are solid and of good quality. 

For my Grant Featherston chair hunt, we went to quite a few shops. It was a pretty tiring hunt where I was about to give up. Mainly because most of the shops in Singapore use wool or wool blended material for the chairs. Fiance and I definitely do not want to sweat in our lounge chair so we went on and on asking about colours and material. We were insistent in getting a blue lounge chair.

In the end, I resorted to calling the shops and asking about the material and pricing before heading to the store to take a look.

.DESIGNER CHAIRS THAT MAKE US GO OOH-LA-LA.

1. Comfort Furniture

10 Eunos Ave 7, Comfort Design Building, S(409573)

Tel: 6747 4809

Comfort furniture has 2 storeys of furniture and numerous designer inspired pieces. This is the shop where we finally found the right material for our armchair. Sadly though, they didn't have it in the cute sky blue we wanted so we ended up with a darker shade of blue.

We choose the 2nd blue from the bottom. Didn't want our chair to have the faded look so we kept to a brighter blue. I think the chair is slightly smaller than the original design but we're cool with it. It also has the best pricing among all the shops we went to.

The best thing about this place is that the material are more suitable for Singapore's warm and humid weather and they have a wide variety of products to choose from.

2. Lush Lush

73 Upper Paya Lebar Road, Centro Bianco, #03-01, S(534818)

Tel: 6858 5882

Lush Lush had the chair we wanted and many more other designer inspired chairs. But the Grant Featherston chair only comes in the hot wool material. We were willing to buy from here if we couldn't get the piece we wanted in mind. They also have many contemporary and lively art pieces.  

3. Standard of Living

34, Khandahar street, S(198892)

Tel: 6298 2349

Standard of Living may be a small shop but it carries a wide range of fabric. I was shown several plain and print fabrics and had the option to choose from polyester, nylon etc. This may be the ideal shop if you want a upholstery that is unique and not so commonly found.  Their selection is indeed wide.

The journey of home building for me is not over yet. It's exciting to hunt for the ideal furniture. And even more exciting when you discover a gem that is pre-loved. I find myself wondering about its history. Vintage furniture has a mysterious charm to them, don't ya think? 

Anyway, I hope my feedback has helped and do share more in the comment box below.

Men 100% Leather Messenger Bags - Vagabond Traveler Review

It's hard to find a nice men genuine leather messenger bag in Singapore that doesn't make you feel like you're paying through your nose. And it's even harder to find is one that is well built, looks rugged with a raw finish that cost below 500SGD. I couldn't even find anything I like at this budget.

I have cracked my head for more than half a year before I realised I have yet to explore my online options. Somehow somewhere, Vagabond Traveler caught my eyes on ebay.com. Good reviews were posted on other sites and replies were prompt from the seller.

I decided to go ahead since it'll only cost be less than half the price (inclusive of shipment) of what I was prepared to pay. I opted for Fedex shipment tracking since Vagabond Traveler ships by Fedex.

And eagerly waited....

And got impatient at times...

When it finally arrived in about 2 week's time!!!

It was neatly packed into a flat box.

Ta-da!!! The bag I hunted for so long in the rugged leather finish I wanted.

It is made of oil tanned leather and is in freedom style.

Vagabond Traveler even packed a holder along with it to make it more presentable for gift giving.

Am I a satisfied online shopper of Vagabond Traveler? Yes, I am. At a fraction of the price in Singapore, I am getting a quality product made of genuine leather.

Vagabond Traveler even packed a holder along with it to make it more presentable for gift giving.

The only drawback? My fiance's light coloured pants get chocolate stains when he uses it. At first, we were perplexed and thought the stains came about from his greed in chomping on chocolate bars. Later on, he figured that bag rubs off brown stains on light coloured pants.

We were told that since this is an oil tanned leather that was tanned with colour and wax in raw leather finish, we would have to wait it out for the bag to stop bleaching eventually... :( For now, my fiance just keep to dark coloured pants.

If you intend to purchase from Vagabond Traveler, it may be worthwhile to note that it's cheaper to buy directly from their website instead of from ebay.com or amazon.com.

Good luck in finding the perfect messenger bag!

Sweep Me Off...

Sweep me off..

Bratislava Trip & Skaritz Hotel & Residence Review

It's always nice to blog about my trip 'coz it gives me a chance to relive my happy-away-from-home moments. Sadly, I don't seem to have much time this year to do so and this is inversely proportionate to the amount of travelling I've done the past year.

Well, at least I can squeeze some time out for Bratislava, Slovakia, only because there was nothing much that caught my attention to write in detail.

Town Square

This lesser known city was a last minute insertion to our itinerary since we were only going to 3 other cities in 2 weeks. We thought that Bratislava is en route from Krakow to Budapest and we could just take the overnight train and wake up in Bratislava. Wrong! It was, in a way... but we had to change train in the wee hours of the morning at 2am at a station called "Bohumin". Bad idea as I was woken up about 5 mins before arriving at the transfer station and all toilets were closed for the day. There was only 1 seedy looking snack-BAR at the deserted station.

At least we saw 2 policemen patrolling and the connecting train arrived 20 mins earlier. What a relief to board the train early and head back into slumber land. 

We arrived in Bratislava around 6am and it was rainy and cold. The weather in Central Europe was still bad and I was pretty reluctant to head to our hotel in the foul weather.

To reach Skaritz Hotel & Residence, we had to buy a 70-cent ticket each (from the yellow ticketing machine at the bus stop) at the bus station located right in front of the rail station and board Bus No. 93 which comes every 10 mins or so. After validating the ticket in the ticket marker on the bus, just alight at Hodžovo nám which is 2 stops away and walk to the hotel. The map can be found here: http://goo.gl/maps/cQisI

It was such a joy when we found it! Warm & toasty it was and we were offered coffee and hot tea while waiting to check in.

And the best thing was they allowed us to check in at 8+am once the room was ready! This is the earliest I've ever checked into a hotel. Naturally, I was happy. It was the only hotel we stayed in for this trip as Slovakia has the cheapest accommodation comparing to Prague, Krakow & Budapest. We stayed in apartments for the other 3 cities.

2 thumbs up for Skaritz Hotel & Residence service and stay!! It is located in a convenient location in the heart of the old town, near to the various tourist attractions.

Summer Archbishop Palace in Sweet Pink

For the 1st day, we visited the castle, ate some good Slovakian traditional cuisine like dumplings with sheep's milk cheese and Kapustnica (sauerkraut soup with sausage), which is now my fav. =P~~

Potato Dumpling with Sheep's Milk Cheese

Kapustnica

Here's some pics of the castle which we found sterile and a tad boring.

Stairs to the Castle

Bratislava Castle Grounds

Castle Courtyard

This was how bored we were when we started to pose in front of the mirrors in the castle.

It was only on the highest level that we read that parts of the castle were destroyed by a fire in early 2012. There were only some exhibits on display; so little that they could all pack into a room. We headed back to the old town for coffee and went back to laze in the hotel before googling for good dinner spots in town.

The next morning, we went out early to The Church of St Elisabeth which is on another side of the old town. When I saw the cute blue church, it brought a smile to my face.

Designed in Art Noveau architectural style, the curves and colour look really adorable for a church.

It was well worth my morning walk before we left for Budapest.

One day in Bratislava was enough for me. The old town is small and it is pleasant to stroll around. One thing stood out was the high number of Sushi bars in this small area. After reading about their economy, I realised they must have quite a few business dealings with Japanese for their car manufacturing &  electrical engineering industries.

Weird take away info for my Bratislava trip...